Mumbai Indians defeated Kolkata Knight Riders by six wickets in their Indian Premier League match played last night at the Eden Gardens grounds in Kolkata.

Skipper Rohit Sharma led from the front with a sparkling 84 as an inspired Mumbai Indians cruised to victory to open their account in the ninth edition of the IPL.

Chasing a challenging target of 188, Jos Buttler made the chase look easier, smashing his way to 41 off mere 22 balls and helped Indians chase down the target with five balls to spare. Having stayed till the end, Sharma got his runs off just 54 balls, hitting 10 fours and two sixes in the process. With six away games awaiting them, it’s a disappointing loss for Kolkata Knight Riders, who surprised by preferring young Indian Chinaman Kuldeep Yadav over ace spinner Sunil Narine, who joined the squad on Tuesday and was rested.

Gambhir led by example with 64 from 52 balls and the skipper got fine support from youngster Pandey, who scored a rollicking 52 from 29 balls, to get the momentum going with a 100-run partnership from just 60 balls.